Fossil fuel firms ‘have humanity by the throat’, says UN head in blistering attack

Antonio Guterres compares climate inaction to tobacco firms dismissing links between smoking and cancer

Fossil fuel companies and the banks that finance them have humanity by the throat", the UN secretary general has said, in a blistering" attack on the industry and its backers, who are pulling in record profits amid energy prices sent soaring by the Ukraine war.

Antonio Guterres compared fossil fuel companies to the tobacco companies that continued to push their addictive products while concealing or attacking health advice that showed clear links between smoking and cancer, the first time he has drawn such a parallel.